


Golden Years

by Lacerta26



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Growing Old Together, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-15
Updated: 2020-04-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:15:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,780
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23666725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lacerta26/pseuds/Lacerta26
Summary: ‘Aren’t you supposed to be retired, Harry?’ says Merlin, barely glancing up from his clipboard. He’s always Harry at HQ, now, hasn’t been Arthur for a while, hasn’t been Galahad for even longer.
Relationships: Harry Hart | Galahad/Gary "Eggsy" Unwin
Comments: 12
Kudos: 103





	Golden Years

**Author's Note:**

> Some gentle indulgence x

‘Aren’t you supposed to be retired, Harry?’ says Merlin, barely glancing up from his clipboard. He’s always Harry at HQ, now, hasn’t been Arthur for a while, hasn’t been Galahad for even longer. 

‘Aren’t you?’

‘I’m younger than you,’ says Merlin waspishly.

‘Not by much.’

‘Some of us don’t have the liberty to feel their age. I’ll still be here when they have to feed me my meals through a tube.’

Harry laughs, it’s an old argument; Merlin, spry-er than Harry at least, is determined to see out the end of his days in Kingsman’s halls. 

‘How are we looking today?’

‘Arthur’s putting them through their paces,’ Merlin tips his clipboard towards the gym they can see through the two way mirrors, to Eggsy looking more handsome in a tracksuit at 52 than Harry ever managed, ‘you best be careful, Harry, they hero worship him. He’ll be bringing them home like stray pups if you don’t keep an eye out.’

‘Nonsense, that would be a gross breach of protocol.’

You did it. Brought him right into your bed as I recall.’

‘Yes, well, Eggsy’s a special case.’

Merlin smirks, ‘isn’t he just,’ as they turn back to watch Eggsy execute a perfect handspring as if he was still 25 to wide-eyed amazement from the assembled recruits. 

Harry winces. Merlin claps him on the shoulder, ‘good god, man, how do you keep up?’

‘We manage.’ 

*

Arthur’s office is on the ground floor of HQ with large windows from which to enjoy the views of rolling parkland and countryside. More welcoming than the dark panelled cave of Chester King and far less fussy than when Harry held the title. Call it favouritism or nepotism but Harry took great pleasure in selecting Eggsy to succeed him to the title of Arthur and no small amount of satisfaction to finally pull him out of the field and away from harm. 

Eggsy is sat behind the desk, back in his suit, typing away at the computer, glasses on because he really does need them these days. He looks up when Harry enters, without knocking, and smiles, the lines around his eyes crinkling further, making him look impossibly distinguished and handsome. 

‘Hiya, babe,’ it’s patently absurd to refer to a man in his seventies that way but it still delights Harry to hear it, the easy way Eggsy slips back into old inflections, turns of phrase, his accent the same as when Harry picked him up outside Holborn police station. 

‘I didn’t expect you today?’ Eggsy looks tired, but content. The new recruits are a good bunch but untested, needing more coddling than Harry or Merlin would normally condone, and Eggsy consequently spends a lot of time at the manor. Pastoral care he calls it, Merlin calls it babysitting.

‘I was bored,’ Harry says simply, dropping into a chair without being asked, another bad habit he’s picked up along the way, ‘and someone has to keep an eye on Merlin.’

Eggsy snorts, ‘I keep threatening to send him out into the field if he’s so keen to stick around.’

‘You can’t trouble Merlin with empty threats, you have to mean it.’

‘I know, christ, I don't know what we’ll do when he actually does retire. He knows where all the bodies are buried.’

*

Harry is just about to attempt to coax Eggsy away from work a few hours early when there’s a tentative knock on the door. 

Eggsy shoots him an apologetic sort of grimace and calls out, ‘enter!’

A young lad shuffles his way into the room, looking awkward in his siren suit, the collar skewiff and an equally anxious looking whippet skittering in behind him.

‘Hey, Eggsy, Gary - I mean, Arthur,’ he stammers, ‘sorry to interrupt,’ he glances suspiciously at Harry, ‘I wondered if you had a minute?’

‘Of course, Daniel,’ Eggsy gestures to the seat next to Harry, ‘this is my husband, Harry. He was Arthur before me, and Galahad before that.’

‘Husband? Oh, right,’ Daniel flushes a dull pink through his dark skin and offers Harry a small smile as he sits down. Interesting. Harry is familiar with that blush. Saw it creeping across Eggsy’s cheeks enough times before they got together, all those decades ago. He teases Eggsy about it sometimes, how he’ll trade Harry in for a younger model after Harry’s taught him all the tricks of the trade, but he doesn’t worry; loyalty and constancy are among Eggsy’s chief qualities. 

He also knows the importance of spending time with your candidate and Daniel, pulled from a pool of recent leavers from Eggsy’s old school, is no doubt feeling slightly out of place. Eggsy has done nothing but build on Harry’s work to even out the playing field and open up opportunities at Kingsman to more than the rich, privileged white boys that filled their ranks for decades but there are obstacles even Kingsman can’t always overcome. 

‘I’ll leave you to it, shall I?’ he says affably, ‘I believe Merlin had something he wanted to show me in R&D.’

‘Back in an hour, Haz? Then we can head home.’ 

‘Of course, darling,’ Harry twinkles just to see Eggsy blush, he may well be paying for that later, and Daniel shifts awkwardly, not looking at either of them. 

Harry gives up bothering Merlin after an hour or two when it becomes clear Eggsy’s attention has been caught up elsewhere; the work, as always, comes first. 

*

Harry doesn’t hear Eggsy’s key in the lock but their dog, a pug, still, and inheritor to JB’s spot in their hearts, alerts him to the imminent arrival by going completely mental in the hallway, and then Eggsy is calling out, ‘Harry?’

‘Living room,’ comes the simple answer. Harry won’t get up, he’s got old bones, and this late in the day once he sits down he doesn’t move unless he has too. 

Eggsy comes into the room, carrying the dog before setting the little beast down to snuffle over to Harry.

‘Hello, darling.’

Eggsy grins, sitting himself right beside Harry on the sofa, head on his shoulder, like when Harry was young and Eggsy was younger, warm and intimate.

‘Don’t start that, poor Daniel could barely get a word out after you’d left.’

‘Of course not, he has a crush on you. I had to stake my claim,’ he runs his hands lightly through the short hairs at the nape of Eggsy’s neck, a favoured move.

‘He does not have a crush on me,’ Eggsy laces their fingers together, the gold bands of their wedding rings glinting in the light, ‘and I married you, didn’t I?’

‘They all have a crush on you. I remember when I was your age,’ Eggsy rolls his eyes, grinning, but he lets Harry speak, ‘when I looked as good as you do now in a bespoke suit…’

‘Better,’ murmurs Eggsy into the soft skin on Harry’s throat.

‘When my hair wasn’t all grey and I could wreak chaos to a young constitution with a well placed smile, a kind word.’

‘You seduced lots of boys and girls before me then?’

‘Before you, darling, never after.’

‘And here I was thinkin’ I was just easy.’

‘Oh, you were never easy. Made me work for it, as they say.’

‘Shut up. You were the one with all the excuses.’

‘Was it not worth it, dearest, in the end?’

‘Yeah, Harry, every day,’ Eggsy kisses his temple, smooth and sweet, and gets up, ‘pasta alright for dinner?’

‘Yes, thank you, do you need a hand?’

‘Nah, you can keep me company though?’

That is worth getting up for.

*

‘Dinner with Rox and Ethan next week? You know Annabel has started talking?’

‘Really, but she was only born…’

‘A year and a half ago.’

‘That long? Is Roxanne planning to ever come back from maternity leave?’

Eggsy smiles, ‘not likely. Not that she’ll admit it to me. Keeps fobbing me off. That’s why we’re picking two recruits from this new bunch.’

‘Do you wish we’d ever done it?’ he doesn’t feel his age that often but Eggsy is still a relatively young man, always will be compared to him, and Harry sees the wistful look in his eyes when he holds Roxy’s daughter, plays with Daisy’s two boys, ‘had a family?’

‘Not with our jobs, Harry. There’s a reason I don’t reckon Rox is coming back. Too much to lose now doesn’t she. 

‘Yes, but you’d be a wonderful father. You still could be if…’ you weren’t tied to a sad, old man is what he thinks but doesn’t say. 

Eggsy catches his hand across the table and squeezes, ‘Harry, nothing about my life with you has been a disappointment. I’ve done things I never dreamed of ‘cause of you.’

Harry looks at him, at where the silver is threaded through his hair in an artful streak, how he looks more slender in his shirtsleeves than the boxy strength of his 20s. He holds himself differently; confidence over bravado, every bit the Kingsman, every bit the love of Harry’s life. 

‘Still…’

‘None of that. I love you, you love me, easy.’

And how easy it is, to love Eggsy like he deserves and let that be enough. 

*

Retirement came easily to Harry, surprisingly enough. The house at the end of the mews had always been the perfect place for an aging retiree to putter around, enjoying the sunshine while he still can. 

He does miss it though; the adrenaline of the chase, fight or flight, throwing himself into work with the characteristic abandon of a man with nothing to live for save the job. 

And then there was Eggsy. 

In Harry’s 50th year, when he still cut a dash in his suits, could still charm with a smile and the handy application of his umbrella on a room full of thugs, Eggsy turned his life upside down. 

He doesn’t think about dying any more than he did when it could come from a well aimed bullet or at the end of a knife. His luck has lasted him this long, when his time comes he’ll meet it just like he has every other challenge. He doesn’t like to think of leaving Eggsy behind but regrets are not something he can afford to dwell on, not after the life he’s had.

Harry walks in Holland Park on the days he can’t be bothered to make it to the shop or to HQ. From the other side of the Japanese Garden he can see Eggsy waiting with their ice creams in the sunshine. He waves and Eggsy smiles, boyish once again, waiting for him as always. 

Happiness came easily as well, in the end.


End file.
